PE2026 Paul Ehrlich MedChem 2026 conference

Caterina Deruvo


OC16 – Caterina Deruvo

Università degli Studi di Bari “A. Moro” – Dipartimento di Farmacia – Scienze del Farmaco

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Investigation of novel guaiacol-bearing molecules as multi-targeted directed ligands (MTDLs) against Alzheimer’s disease-related targets
Deruvo Caterina1, Rosa Purgatorio1, Marianna Ranieri2, Modesto de Candia1, Marco Catto1, Orazio Nicolotti1, Grazia Tamma2, Cosimo D. Altomare1

1 Department of Pharmacy-Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2 Department of Biosciences Biotechnologies and Environment, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via E. Orabona 4, 70125, Bari,Italy
Abstract
Natural phenolic compounds such as eugenol, vanillin, curcumin and ferulic acid (FA) share a guaiacol fragment associated with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective activities, which make it a promising moiety of multitarget-directed ligands (MTDLs) for treating neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1]. In this study, the guaiacyl moiety was conjugated with indole and isatine cores, as well as tetrahydroazepino-indoles and chromenopyridines previously disclosed by some of us as inhibitors of β-amyloid aggregation, cholinesterases and monoamine oxidases [2,3]. Herein, the activities toward the AD-related targets of the newly synthesized guaiacyl derivatives 2-5 were investigated and compared with the ferulic acid ethyl ester 1.
The biological evaluation includes inhibition assays of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), monoamine oxidases A and B (MAO A and B), β-amyloid aggregation studies, radical scavenging activity, and intracellular ROS measurements in cell models under oxidative stress conditions.
References  
[1] Li, D.; Rui, Y.; Guo, S.; Luan, F.; Liu, R.; Zeng, N. Ferulic acid: A review of its pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and derivatives. Life Sci. 2021, 284, 119921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119921.
[2] Purgatorio, R.; De Candia, M.; De Palma, A.; De Santis, F.; Pisani, L.; Campagna, F.; Cellamare, S.; Altomare, C. D.; Catto, M. Insights into Structure-Activity Relationships of 3-Arylhydrazonoindolin-2-One Derivatives for Their Multitarget Activity on β-Amyloid Aggregation and Neurotoxicity. Molecules 2018, 23 (7), 1544. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23071544.
[3] Purgatorio, R.; Kulikova, L. N.; Pisani, L.; Catto, M.; De Candia, M.; Carrieri, A.; Cellamare, S.; De Palma, A.; Beloglazkin, A. A.; Reza Raesi, G.; Voskressensky, L. G.; Altomare, C. D. Scouting around 1,2,3,4‐Tetrahydrochromeno[3,2‐c]Pyridin‐10‐ones for Single‐ and Multitarget Ligands Directed towards Relevant Alzheimer’s Targets. ChemMedChem 2020, 15 (20), 1947–1955. https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.202000468.